Magzter raises US$ 10 million for global expansion

Magzter which claims to have created the largest and fastest growing cross-platform, global digital magazine store and newsstand, today announced that it has raised a US$10M round of Series B funding. This new round of funding is led by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Press Holdings Ltd (SPH) and its existing investor Kalaari Capital (Kalaari). The funding will primarily be utilized for further expansion and entry in to digital books. Magzter aims to have one million digital books available on its platform by early 2014.

In just over two years, Magzter has more than 16 million users from more than 200 countries, and offers a global catalog of over 3000 magazines from over 900 publishers in more than 30 international languages. Available on multiple platforms and devices, Magzter has been one of the most downloaded apps on iOS in various countries. 

Magzter was co-founded by the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Girish Ramdas and President, Vijayakumar Radhakrishnan in 2011. It allows any publisher in the world to digitally publish for a global audience. With headquarters in New York, sales offices and teams in the UK, France, Germany, South Africa, Singapore and a back-office in India, Magzter has rapidly scaled to also become the world’s largest creator of Apple Newsstand apps. As device penetration grows and more and more publishers look for digital, online, tablet and mobile solutions for their content, Magzter’s easy-to-use, fast-loading, self-publishing technology is poised to become a dominant player in the global e-publishing market.

Girish Ramdas, CEO, Magzter said, “Magzter has become a global leader in digital magazines and the investment from SPH and our existing investor Kalaari is perfectly in line with our expansion plans since SPH is a regional powerhouse and a significant player in the global publishing industry. With this new investment we look forward to growing to be the number one digital reading destination in the world!”
 

Vijayakumar Radhakrishnan, President, Magzter said “This Series B funding will be used for our plans to further expand our business by offering new services, content types like digital books and enter new geographies. We are truly excited about this new investment from SPH and Kalaari and we believe both publishers and consumers will benefit from our future expansion plans.”

Deborah Lee, Executive Vice-President, Corporate Development, SPH, says "Investing in Magzter Inc is an opportunity for us to enter into yet another new platform for content delivery and is part of our strategy to enhance content creation and distribution. We are excited to be part of this round of funding and see great potential in Magzter for future growth."
 

Rajesh Raju, MD, Kalaari Capital said, “Magzter has exceeded every expectation since our investment 18 months ago. The company continues to break new ground with innovative features and is helping move publishing to the digital age with cutting edge cloud and mobile technologies. We are pleased to be partnering with a reputed organization like SPH in further building Magzter to be a dominant global player.

Global publishers using Magzter include Hearst (USA), Conde Nast (USA), Newsweek (USA), Bloomberg (USA), Maxim, Haymarket (UK), Dennis Publishing (UK), Dogan Burda (Turkey), Media24 (South Africa), Caxton Publishing (South Africa), India Today Group (India), World Wide Media (India), Hearst Shuklev Media (Russia), Amarin (Thailand), Inspire Entertainment (Thailand), Edipresse (HK), Nuclear Media (Australia), Pacific Media (Australia/NZ) and SPH in Singapore.